If the EU does something good will anybody actually see it?

We hear it all the time in the tabloid press... the EU is bad, they want to take away our pints and miles, straighten all our bananas and want to make circus performers wear hard hats. With so many untruths being published on a daily basis it's easy to understand why there is a growing voice on the streets against EU membership. It is mostly uninformed though - or rather the result of brainwashing from the tabloid press and political parties such as the Conservatives and the UK Independence Party.

It's a real shame though that the EU does do a lot for the UK. People might believe we pay through the nose and get nothing, however thanks to negotiations in the `80s and `90s we as a nation do not fully pay our way in the EU. Ironically though, like all other EU nations, we qualify for funding when times are hard. Today I heard that the UK is getting £120 million in EU aid to help pay for rescue services and temporary accommodation.

However I can't see this action being used to boost the popularity of the EU. I can hear the Europhobes now muttering under their breaths "if we hadn't given the money to the EU in the first place we wouldn't have to ask for it back now". I'm fairly certain this wouldn't be the case though. If we weren't an EU member we would at the very least still be paying many of the costs involved in trading with what would still be considered foreign countries; cross border trade costs a lot of money, some of which we're still paying because of our refusal to join the Euro or fully metricate. It's also a foregone conclusion that much of the money would have been wasted on bolstering bureaucracy in Whitehall and the NHS or propping up more failing British industry as was the case back in the 1970's.

Ok, so a lot of the money we have paid into the EU has been spent on projects in countries such as Ireland, Spain and more recently Eastern Europe, but on the flip side those countries who we've helped are (or will) be paying more into EU coffers in years to come and it is true what they say that what goes around comes around. Our payments to the EU are now helping us in our time of need and I have no doubt will do so again in the future. It's a great insurance policy!

So, next time the Sun or the Daily Mail print some sensationalist headlines about somebody in Brussels plotting to take over Britain think about this... we do actually get a lot from Europe!

The farce that the UK calls democracy

I can recall many things I was taught at school that I have since discovered to be at the very least suspect and at worst completely untrue... but the times that stick in my mind were the lessons about the system of government that we're told we have in this country, democracy.

Lets take things from the beginning. Do we live in a country where we elect people to represent us in government via a secret ballot? Yes. So, what is the problem I hear you cry?

Well, forget for a moment the Republican question (i.e. the idea that, in a true democracy, the head of state would be elected and not hereditary) and lets look at recent news stories. Today for instance we hear that in Wales that hospital car parks are to be free of charges. In the last few years we've also seen the Scots drop tuition fees for universities and have provided free care for the elderly. I also seem to recall prescription charges being mentioned somewhere too. We also saw Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all bring in comprehensive smoking bans while some parts of the UK (er... ok, England) had to wait while Westminster pondered the possibility of exemptions to the rules before finally deciding on basically the same rules as everywhere else in the country.

We all know what causes this, it's the fact that in an effort to quiet the calls for independence the Labour government of recent years agreed to allow Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland a measure of self government. Note however that none of these three regions got the same thing. Scotland got a "parliament", Wales got an "assembly" and NI got "power sharing" (ok, there is a reason for NI's situation and I'm not going to go there today). The thing that gets my goat though is that the region I live in, England, has no such parliament or assembly. We remain governed from Westerminster which in itself would not be a bad thing except for this:

In the case of the Scottish, Welsh and NI assemblies there is not one single representative from another region which means that local decisions are made entirely by officials elected by local people. The Westminster parliament however is made up of officials elected by every region of the UK and hence it is possible for somebody elected only in Scotland or Wales to make a decision which effects England, an MP elected in England can often not effect a decision made in Cardiff or Edinburgh.

Basically folks, if you're English then you're being ripped off by your elected officials! However, in many cases I think you deserve it. Take, for instance, a local council by-election in Corby, Northants. A local Conservative councillor had stepped down for personal reasons and so a replacement was needed. There are lots of things going on locally that people are happy to whine and moan about - the instigation of charges in the local multi-story car park for instance, the state of the local economy thanks to several companies closing down or outsourcing to India, housing, education, road safety... all 3 candidates spent a lot of money posting flyers to houses in the area but when it came down to it only 18% of the local electorate could be bothered. So, instead of the representation that would have done the best job, we got what we deserved!

The same thing applies with Europe. Many people are happy to sit around with their Daily Mail and/or Sun newspapers and repeat parrot-fashion the ramblings of xenophobic editors about funny shaped bananas and the idea that the metric system is somehow akin to being invaded by the French... but when elections come along nobody is willing to listen to their prospective MEP's let alone go out and vote (unless they happen to be washed up TV personalities with ideas that make the the rabid anti-Europe tabloid press look positively tame).

What I find both funny and sad is how a lot of people have for years wished that the UK had a welfare system comparable to many European countries, roads and healthcare as good as the French, an economy as good as the Germans (well... not so much now since unification!), petrol prices as low (or lower!) than the Belgians. You don't hear that so much these days though although many of these things are still true. The truth has been washed away with tabloid-talk of floods of migrant Romanians living off our dole and the Poles taking all of our jobs; forget that we have just as much right to go to their countries and buy their cheap houses as they have to come here and do the jobs that many of us are too lazy to do. The real problem with us Brits is that we're living in a time when those who run the country hark back to the days of Empire, days when we ran the world... they're not interested in joining the clubs started by others unless we can be chairman and make all the rules. This is what is making Britain what it is today, both internally and within Europe.

What do we need? We need consistency in our system of government. What we need is the same level of representation for the people across the entire country. What this means is this:

• Local government needs to be streamlined - with unitary authorities across all regions (there should be no need for one council to be responsible for one thing while another council is responsible for another). These authorities should have an elected mayor as well as council.
• All four regions of the UK should have their own elected assembly. England, Scotland, Wales and NI assemblies should have the same powers, the same functions and should be elected and accountable in the same manner.
• The UK as a whole should have a 2-house parliament, both democratically elected, with an elected head of state as well as a prime-minister. The country should be run on a federal model such as the one used by Germany.
• The UK should stop trying to cherry-pick the benefits it wants from the EU. There are other countries in the EU and they all have to follow the same rules. The way that the UK acts is no different from somebody parking in a disabled bay at the supermarket just because they're too lazy to carry their shopping a few metres more.

Those who complain about the EU are often the ones who think the UK is great... but why? They're both a "Union", they both have a head who isn't elected by the people, they both rule a wide area from a city that holds little relevance for most people in that area, they both have a single currency, they both have open b0rders between many of their states and they both speak more than one language. Quite frankly, those who think that the European Union is bad should take a look at the union they live in... it's hardly a good example of how to run things!